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Saturday, June 6, 2009

Escape for a Princess

A teenage US-Indonesian model has returned to her family in Indonesia with tales of abuse, rape and torture at the hands of a Malaysian prince, after her dramatic escape with the help of Singapore police.

Manohara Odelia Pinot, 17, told reporters she was treated like a sex slave after her marriage to Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, the prince of Malaysia's Kelantan state, last year.

Her mother, Daisy Fajarina, said she would press charges against the prince and blamed the Malaysian and Indonesian governments for trying to cover up the abuse.

The Malaysian government had ignored her pleas for access to her daughter and had blocked her from entering the country, she said, while the Indonesian embassy had said that Manohara was fine with her new husband.

But the young woman - a well-known socialite in Jakarta - said her life at the royal palace involved a "daily routine'' of rape, abuse, torture and drug injections which made her vomit blood.

She said she secretly called Singaporean police and pleaded for help after the royal family took her to the city state when they accompanied Fakhry's father,Sultan Ismail Petra Shah II, for medical treatment.

A spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry said the Government would help Manohara if she wanted to file charges against her husband.

She has already filed for divorce.

There has been no comment from the Kelantan royal family or the Malaysian government.